The second Wednesday of each month will be a Late Start morning with a two hour delay start time.

Late Start dates are published on the AASD district calendar.
The two hour late starts will occur on the second Wednesday of each month, with the
exception of January, April, and May 2020. The late start in April will occur on the first
Wednesday due to Spring Break being scheduled on the second Wednesday. There are two
late start dates in January and May.

All neighborhood schools will start exactly two hours after the regular start time. For example, if the elementary school normally begins at 8:27 a.m., the Late Start day would begin at 10:27 a.m. Middle and high schools will follow their published two-hour delay schedule for inclement weather (full schedule with shortened periods for middle and high schools).

Free Before School Program on Late Start Days for Elementary Students

The Appleton Area School District provides a free before school program on Late Start days for elementary students. The program is offered from 8:00 - 10:10 a.m. at each elementary school on Late Start days.

If you wish to have your child participate in the Late Start Before School Program please fill out the registration forms sent home with your student at the beginning of each semester.

Elementary students who participate in the program MUST be registered and arrive at school between 8:00 - 8:30 a.m. This is to ensure adequate staffing, program quality, and student safety.

Looking for additional Late Start Before School Program Registration Forms?

Forms are located on your school's website. Click on Families, then Forms and then Late Start Before School Program Registration.

Transportation

The bus and cab companies have agreed to follow and accommodate the published two-hour delay schedule.

Breakfast

District food service has created a plan so sites that currently serve breakfast in the morning can continue to do so on the monthly late start days.

Background Information

Professional collaboration is at the heart of the District’s Continuous School Improvement Planning (CSIP) process and is an integral part of a Response to Intervention (RtI) framework of instruction and support for all students.

Collegial relationships that result from collaborative work within high-functioning learning communities support continuous adult learning, the building of expertise, and the improvement of professional practice. Effective professional collaboration requires dedicated time available on a regular basis and educators sharing responsibility for the learning of all students.

FAQ's

What if a family cannot provide supervision for their children due to work schedules, etc.?

The district has worked with our current Extended Day Learning Program providers (Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA) to plan no-cost programming at each of our elementary school sites. This option will be publicized to families at each site. In order to make use of this option, families will need to be registered.

Looking for Late Start Before School Program Registration Forms?
Forms are located on your school's website. Click on Families, then Forms and then Late Start Before School Program Registration Forms.

What about Early Childhood and/or 4K classroom schedules?

The administrator(s) assigned to these areas of responsibility have developed schedule(s) to accommodate the Late Start Collaboration time.
Will this time be taking the place of common planning time that may already be built into the weekly schedule?

No. Late Start Collaboration Time is in addition to already existing collaboration blocks within building schedules and site CSIP expectations.

How can we afford to miss 18 hours of instructional time with students?

Research shows that “Teacher collaboration in strong professional learning communities improves the quality and equity of student learning, promotes discussions that are grounded in evidence and analysis rather than opinion, and fosters collective responsibility for student success” (McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006).

With the increasing demands on educators at the local, state, and national levels, we can’t afford NOT to do this for our students and staff. Even with the proposed monthly late start schedule, the calendar still meets the required minutes for the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) at all levels.

Accountability

Principals will be responsible for collecting agendas and minutes from teams of educators at their school site and submitting them to their assigned assistant superintendent on a monthly basis. Use of collaborative time must be directly linked to school and district goals.
At the elementary level, how will missed art, music, or physical education be made up for students and staff?

Schedules have been created at each site so that those classes will not be missed on the Wednesday Late Start mornings.

Why late start and not early release to provide additional collaboration time?

Early release in the afternoon would mean that middle and high school students would have two hours of ‘down time’ prior to after-school activities since most coaches/advisors would be involved in professional collaboration time. This could create supervision issues at the school sites and in the community.

With a late start schedule, middle and high school students could use the time to get additional sleep and support child care needs at home for younger siblings.